352 Olmsted's Introduction to Natural Philosophy. 
tion pursued in Yale College, and in most of the colleges of our 
country, severally and conjointly contribute to this main purpose. 
Geometry and Mechanics, ivdeed, unite, in a remarkable degree, the 
three objects specified ; for nothing is better suited to mental disci- 
pline than the demonstrations of the truths they contain; the truths 
themselves are of great value as subsidiary to other brmehed of 
knowledge, particularly the knowledge of nature and of the princi- 
ples of art; and the practice of conducting long demonstrations on 
the black bard’ in the presence of a class, accustoms the student to 
express himself with perspicuity and correctness. 
All great and accurate attainments in Natural Philosophy vl As 
tronomy, are founded in the science of Mechanics, which is, indeed, 
little more than an expansion of the three great laws of motion, follow- 
ed out throngh all their consequences. So long as mankind supposed 
that motion was one thing on earth and another thing among the 
heavenly bodies, they made no progress in investigating the laws of 
the Universe. We owe to Newton the full development of the doc- 
trine of -the uniformity of the laws of nature. The Principia first 
taught the world how to ascend from simple observations and exper- 
iments on the motion of bodies around us, to a pants me os 
sublime but equally simple movements of the spheres. 
A philosophical education, therefore, must have its foratvdatiboos lid 
deep in the science of Mechanics. But it must not stop here. The 
student of philosophy must not only have his mind stored with these 
universal truths, but he must be initiated i in the daily practice of phi- 
losophizing, both upon the phenomena of nature and upon the opera- 
tions of art, which latter are, indeed, for the most part, only operations 
of the powers of nature as modified by the ingenuity of man. We 
would have our men of education commence philosophers as soon 
as they begin the study of philosophy, and ever afterwards cherish 
the habit of seeking an explanation of every phenomenon decimal 
art or nature that is presented to their observation. 
The want of a good text book for classes in Natural Philosophy, bas 
long, been felt in our colleges. Enfield’s Institutes, although 4 crude 
compilation, abounding it in errors,* and far behind the present state : 
of science, long maintained its ground in spite of all these diadvan- 
tages, > Ra, ae as it was, it was better adapted on the whole 
ice sae eee 
list : er pointed out. by Professor Fisher, in Vol. 
p- 125 of this Journal. 
